NKorea warns naval incursions could spark clash
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned South Korea on Thursday that a spate of incursions along their disputed sea border could spark a naval clash, in what analysts said was a threat to reinflame tensions if it doesn’t get what it wants from recent conciliatory gestures.
After months of provocations including nuclear and missile tests, North Korea has recently reached out to Seoul and Washington. It freed American and South Korean detainees, lifted restrictions on border crossings and resumed reunions of families separated by the Korean War.
This week, however, it has sent mixed signals to the outside world, starting with a barrage of short-range missile tests on Monday.
Media reports said the North appeared ready to test-fire more missiles, but it offered a rare apology Wednesday for releasing a torrent of water from a dam that caused a deadly flood in South Korea.
On Thursday, the North accused South Korean warships of broaching its territory in waters off their west coast — the scene of deadly naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2002 .
“The reckless military provocations by warships of the South Korean navy have created such a serious situation that a naval clash may break out between the two sides in these waters,” its navy said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
Despite the harsh rhetoric, North Korean officials are to sit down with South Korean counterparts on Friday to discuss more reunions of separated families.
The North’s conflicting actions appear to be the result of a “thorough calculation” by its leader, Kim Jong Il, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies.
Kim’s aim is to pressure South Korea to respond more actively to North Korea’s outreach by showing that his government can raise tensions once again if it fails to get what it wants, Yang said.
North Korea has offered to resume key joint projects with South Korea and has proposed direct talks with the U.S., but neither initiative has yet been accepted. Washington and Seoul have also shown no signs of easing pressure on North Korea to disarm through U.N. sanctions imposed after its May nuclear test.
“It’s time for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons now,” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said in a meeting with foreign diplomats in Seoul on Thursday.
South Korea’s navy expressed “very serious regret” over the North’s warning Thursday, saying it could spark unnecessary tension on the Korean peninsula.
The warning, however, is not expected to lead to the rancor that followed the North’s nuclear test.
“They’ve repeated (such threats) for a long time. We don’t really care about it,” a Defense Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said South Korea would not bolster its security posture.
Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University, linked this week’s naval warning and missile tests to North Korean national pride, saying its government wants to show it didn’t make the goodwill gestures as a result of the U.N. sanctions.
South Korea’s top official for inter-Korean relations indicated Thursday that Seoul is prepared to offer North Korea food aid without conditions as a humanitarian gesture, an apparent softening of the government’s stance.
“We will provide limited humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable groups in North Korea regardless of political and security circumstances,” Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said in a speech to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea. “We will do our part to end the suffering of our brothers in the North.”
For a decade, South Korea was one of biggest donors to the impoverished North. But the flow of aid from Seoul stopped when President Lee took office last year saying any help depended on North Korea’s denuclearization.
The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. They are divided by a heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.
North Korea does not recognize the western maritime border drawn unilaterally by the United Nations, and routinely issues warnings to South Korea about incursions across the military line.
Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang and Kwang-tae Kim contributed to this report.
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